Dark Attraction
by ClockworkSky
Summary: Raven tries to overcome her father's darkness as it threatens to consume her, but in doing so she fights the little emotion she can have safely. However she finds that she can't escape real love from her friends, one in particular.
1. Prologue

Dark Attraction

Disclaimer and author's note: I do not own Teen Titans or any other licensed and/or copy written material used or mentioned in this story. My note is that in this story Terra never existed because I am a relatively knew Teen Titans fan and I've only seen the show a hand full of times and the rest of my knowledge is from online research and at the time I began writing this in my notebook I did not know who Terra was.

**Prologue **

Raven's dark violet eyes rolled back into her head a little and the constant chitter-chatter of a certain red-haired, green eyed alien who had her hand wrapped around Raven's thin upper wrist. As she was some what dragged along by Starfire she looked around for any object, such as an empty trashcan to place over Starfire's head and stop her incessant talking. She only saw a dumpster and after some consideration decided that to be a little harsh, besides it would have taken the use of quite a bit of her power, a power that she had come to fear and had determined to use as little as was necessary. But she still wanted Starfire to let go of her arm, she was perfectly capable of following the others herself. 'Well, you attract more flies with honey than with vinegar,' she reasoned quietly as she looked at Starfire and back to the dumpster, 'Or less in this case,' she thought, smirking to herself but outwardly remained expressionless. She cleared her throat and began to speak.

"Starfire is it possible you could let go of my arm?" she asked as nicely as she could in her usual monotone.

Starfire quickly let go of her arm, looking down at it, "I'm sorry, did I hurt you? Oh my, your skin looks as though I have restricted your circulation, it's started to have a very slight purple cast," she chattered frantically.

"Uh, Star... Raven's skin is always like that, maybe she is just tired of being dragged around," Beast Boy, who was lagging behind Cyborg and Robin with Star and Raven, said.

At that point Robin looked back at the three, "Star, you were the one who insisted we come out today, so what's the deal, where do you wanna go?" he asked.

Starfire stopped and touched her lip thoughtfully, after a moment of silence she looked at them sweetly, "I forgot." All of them sweat-dropped. "Don't look so depressed guys," she said smiling, "It's a beautiful day and we can find something to do."

"I'd rather be back in my room meditating," Raven said blankly.

"Oh, c'mon Rae, have fun for once," taking Raven's wrist in her overly affectionate manner.

"I asked you to let go of me once, it's not like I'm going anywhere."

"Sorry."

They continued walking down the sidewalk, ever enthusiastic Star having gone up with Robin and Cyborg. Beast Boy walked slightly behind the trio but not enough for them to take notice. Raven walked further behind still, not for any special reason other than she just didn't care.

Star looked around at her surroundings, always in awe of the complexities of human life. "Guys, what's the name of that place where there are all those stores, games and restaurants with that big waterfall in the middle?" Star asked, a little frustrated that things that were so easy for everyone else sometimes proved difficult for her.

"The mall?" Cyborg asked.

"Yeah, can we go there?" Star asked.

"That's a good idea, I'm hungry," Beast Boy said becoming a little more interested in the conversation.

Robin shrugged, "Sure why not?"

Raven's shoulders slumped but she followed anyway.


	2. Chapter One : At the Mall

Chapter One

At the Mall

The automatic doors at the mall slid open as the group walked through them. Cyborg and Beast Boy really enjoyed the mall because almost nothing stood out as weird there, that and the fact that in a big town like they lived in, the mall had every type of food imaginable. "Where to go first..." Star pondered aloud.

"I'm hungry," Beast Boy stated.

Raven shrugged, "Don't care."

"You're the one who wanted to come here," Cyborg said as Robin nodded in agreement.

"Well-" Star began, pausing to think.

"I'm hungry," Beast Boy said again, slightly more loudly and urgently.

Raven rolled her eyes.

"Problem solved. The guys can go eat while Raven and I look at clothes."

"But you always wear the same outfit..." Robin said slowly.

"And **Raven** 'look at clothes'?" Cyborg asked incredulously.

"Well, there's a first time for everything," said Beast Boy hurriedly, eager to go eat.

"All right then," said Robin as he and Cyborg followed Beast Boy to the food court.

'Oh no,' Raven thought quietly. Once again Star grabbed her wrist. There had to be some kind of magnet in her wrist whose opposite was in Star's palm Raven was now convinced. Raven was led into a medium sized clothing store. Almost everything was bright and frilly with little flowers on everything that would stand still. Star found it awe-inspiring, Raven found it disgusting. Star looked around and a section in the back of the store caught her eye. Raven boredly followed without question. Starfire began flipping though a rack until she came upon a long formal dress almost if not exactly the same color as her current outfit. It had a plain V-neck a white string belt around the dress' high waistline. She looked at it and smiling let go of Raven's arm and draped the dress over her own. She continued looking through the clothes until she came upon something that intrigued her. She looked from it to Raven and back to the outfit and got a mischievous grin on her face.

"So how do you think the girls are making out?" Beat Boy asked, picking at what was left of his two super-sized veggie burger value meals deciding not to finish the last bit of good to keep himself from turning a deeper shade of green.

Robin got a snide smirk on his face; "Out of sight and against a wall?" he responded leisurely taking a drink of his soda.

Beast Boy looked up at Robin his eyes slightly widened, shocked by the very perverse... yet oddly intriguing take on his question, "Dude..." was all he managed to say.

Cyborg's eyes widened too as he nearly fell over laughing, "Robin, man, you are beyond help. You seriously think about those two that way?"

"Yeah, I mean c'mon, Raven especially would kill you, **painfully** if she figured it out and she wouldn't have a hard time doing so with that crazy anger thing she's got," said Beast Boy nervously.

"Nah hadn't really thought about it until you said it."

"But you know I didn't mean it that way..."

"It was just too good of an opportunity."

"Right, well do you think we should go try to find them?" asked Beast Boy.

"Sure, I'm finished eating," said Robin.

"Yeah I'm done."

Raven noticed her friend's deviant smile, "What?" she asked.

"The 'what' is the dress in my hand and the 'on who' is you," she replied.

Raven looked to see what Starfire had in her hand fearfully. The dress was mostly black and long, it had a piece of material that flowed from the back of the neck down forming a burgundy train and it had burgundy gothic sleeves. It didn't look horrible but Raven just didn't really like dresses, "You are not gonna make me wear _that_."

"Watch me," Star replied, grabbing her wrist and pulling her towards the dressing room.

Raven's eyes glowed red, forcing Star to let go of her.

"Come on, just try it on."

Raven growled, "Fine."

Raven begrudgingly grabbed the dress and walked into a dressing room stall, "And I can dress myself."

Star smiled in satisfaction and went back to looking at the dresses while waiting on Raven.

About the same time Raven had finished putting the dress on properly Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy spotted Starfire in the store and walked back to where she was. "Hey, what's up?" Robin asked.

Starfire jumped a little startled, "Isn't it obvious?"

Cyborg and Beast Boy looked around noticing the absence of their violet haired friend.

"So Raven ditched after all?" Beast Boy asked.

"No, she's in the dressing room," Starfire replied, continuing flipping through the racks.

"I'm sorry, I must've heard you wrong; Raven is trying something on?" Robin asked.

"Yeah, I convinced her to, speaking of which..." Starfire said walking over to the stall where Raven was.

In the meantime Raven had heard Robin and Beast Boy's voices.

"You okay?" Star asked.

"Yes, I'm fine, but there is no way I'm coming out there in this."

"Raven don't be difficult," Star pleaded.

"Fine, I'll come out but I'll get you back for this... somehow. I'm only agreeing to this because there's no reason to blow up an entire mall."

The dressing room door opened and Starfire walked out of the hallway ahead of Raven as Raven followed sulking.

The male titans looked over up when they heard the door of the dressing room come open just to see that no damage had been done. Beast Boy and Cyborg dropped their share of the load of clothes Starfire had left them with.

"That is **so** not Raven," Beast Boy said, kneeling down and picking up his and Cyborg's piles of clothes.

Cyborg was still trying to let Raven's new appearance register, the dress she had on was quite form fitting and fit her all too well, "Can we change her name to Mistress?" he said half jokingly trying to hide just how awe-struck he was with her.

She glared at him and put her hand on her left hip, "Yeah, sure," she said with cold sarcasm.

Robin just found the whole situation very amusing.

"The sooner I change the sooner we can leave, Star go buy your stuff," Raven said walking back into the dressing room, hiding a slight blush.

"Sure," she said snickering, "Pretty isn't she?" she asked as Raven disappeared back into the stall.

"Plead the fifth," Robin said uncomfortably.

"No comment," Cyborg replied chuckling nervously.

"That's some kinda trick question, besides I can't answer anyway, too dizzy," Beast Boy said.

Raven felt more comfortable back in her normal clothes and out of the clothing store and she walked as far away from Star as she could. Se had determined that being around her was dangerous. "So, anything else here or do we go home?" Robin asked. "Nah, we've got a new video game at home, no point I spending money on the arcade," Beast Boy said.

"Geez, that's a first," Raven mused considering she was standing near them for once.

"Another first, Raven voluntarily joined a conversation," Cyborg said chuckling a little.

Raven ignored him as she thought for a moment, "You guys mind if we go into Spencer's for a minute?"

"And you want to go shopping?" Robin asked.

Raven just ignored them and walked into the loud store, the speakers blaring,

"..._Paranoia's all I've got left, I don't know what stressed me first or how the pressure was fed, But I know just what it feels like to have a voice in the back of my head, Like a face that I hold inside, A face that I waste when I close my eyes, A face that I watch every time a lie, A face that laughs every time I fall, It watches everything, So no doubt it's time to sink or swim, The face inside, it's hearing me, right underneath my skin, it's like I'm paranoid looking over my back, It's like whirlwind inside of my head, It's like I can't stop what I'm hearing within..."_

Beast Boy and Cyborg looked around as they followed, "Apparently these people personally designed Raven's room..." Beast Boy said.

Raven got a packet of incense sticks, a packet of black lights, a new candle lighter, and then stopped at a rack and picked out a dragon candle holder and a black candle and then satisfied went to the checkout.

Robin and Star had opted to just stay near the front of the store and when Raven walked over to the, followed by the remaining two she looked where they were standing by one another and bit her lip holding back a laugh, "Uh, Robin, Star, look at the rack behind you..." Cyborg and Beast Boy just laughed. The rack behind them had sets of handcuffs and other types of naughty toys on it. Robin just looked from the rack and then looked at Star, looking her up and down momentarily and then just blushed and shoved his hands in his pockets, "Yeah, yeah, what we get for not looking behind us, let's go."

Starfire furrowed her brow and leaned over to Raven as they walked out of the store, "I don't get it...they just looked like restraints to me, what's embarrassing about that?"

Raven sighed and thought for a minute, "It's just how those restraints are used... I'll explain later."

Star nodded, but she still felt bad that Robin was embarrassed though.


	3. Chapter Two : At the Titan Tower

Chapter Two

At the Titan Tower

The Titans entered their towering home, Robin went to the control room, Star went into the kitchen, Cyborg and Beast Boy went into Beast Boy's room to play their new video game on Beast Boy's little television, and Raven walked past Beast Boy's open door and into her own room. When she entered her room she sighed heavily and emptied the bag of things she had gotten from the mall onto her bed and threw the white and purple plastic bag away. She walked into her own bathroom and turned the shower on all hot water and replaced the dark purple inner plastic lining of the shower curtain, leaving the thick cloth part out of the tub's wall. She walked back out of the bathroom and to her bed and picked up the packet of incense sticks and picked one of the darkly colored straws and grabbed her incense holder and lighter. She locked her room door and proceeded back into the bathroom and carefully slid the stick into it's holder and lit it, holding up the lighter and as she put it down the flames nipped at the palm of her other hand but she didn't try to stop it. The smoke slowly filled the room but she left the door cracked, she used the hand that didn't have a fresh burn on it to undo her cape and drape it over the counter, she slipped the straps of her leotard off and allowed it to fall to the floor, then she unsnapped her sleeveless bra and took her underwear off and got into the shower, ignoring the throbbing pain in her hand. The water ran down her back as she washed her hair and then proceeded to wash the remainder of her body and subsequently opened some small wounds she had received in fighting that hadn't fully healed. Her blood was darker than most but still red, she looked down in the water and saw the tiny droplets disperse, then as she got out of the shower and wrapped herself in a towel she began thinking, the sight of her own blood disgusted her, not because she was afraid of blood in any way but because of it's hue, her blood wasn't like human blood, even Starfire and Beast Boy had blood that looked like any other humans', but hers looked inhuman. She felt her chest seize up and she started to slightly hyperventilate. She had to fight her emotions though; she didn't want anyone to get hurt; she reached out with her hand and took hold of the door knob pushing the door open. Then she remembered the little burn on her hand and it started throbbing again, she needed to go bandage it she decided. She went over to something that looked very much like a casket and opened it, rather than there being a dead body there was another black leotard, a few other capes, some other changes of clothes, and two night gowns. She picked up one of them and slipped it over her head, allowing the towel to drop then she slipped on a new pair of underwear and gathered up her old clothes and threw them in a hamper with her hand that wasn't burnt. She went to the door, hitting a few numbers on a keypad causing it to unlock and open. She quietly walked past Beast Boy's door, where he and Cyborg were still playing the video game, barely holding consciousness but utterly engrossed in their activity. She came to the place where the control room connected to the kitchen, she glanced into the control room, instinctively remaining aware of her surroundings as best she could, Robin was sitting in his usual spot on the couch watching a movie, and Starfire was curled up at the other end of it sleeping. Everything there was normal; they were all just normal people, except for her. She quietly walked into the kitchen, sighing lightly, but remaining unnoticed. She opened a cabinet and got out some medicine, gauze, and medical tape. She took a swap and began carefully dabbing the medicine on the wound, especially slowly, it hurt more that way but somehow in her mind she deserved pain and she wasn't even aware that she was doing it. She was so busy putting the medicine along the somewhat raw blistered area on her palm that she didn't hear Beast Boy and Cyborg telling one another goodnight and Beast Boy heading toward the kitchen to get his midnight tofu bread and tofu patty until he was near the door. She didn't want him to see her hand and start asking questions, and for that matter she didn't really want him to talk to her and start cracking jokes, she really was **not** in the mood. She quickly and quietly pushed the medical utensils she had back out of the way and quickly went to the far end of the island in the middle of the kitchen and sat against it, hugging her knees quietly and holding her breath, but the longer she did the more futile it became, because being this quiet only left her alone with her thoughts, and Beast Boy's incessant chatter, mimicking video game dialogue. She felt her heart seem to swell painfully as she fought back tears and then without warning a burst of her dark energy filled the room causing a wooden vase that belonged to Beast Boy to fall off its perch on the edge of a counter in front of her. Beast Boy turned to see what the thud was as Raven's tears started to brim over. She fought it and got a semblance of control of her emotions just as Beast Boy stood from kneeling down to pick up the exotic flowers he kept in the vase. As he turned he saw Raven sitting there and jumped slightly startled.

"Well that explains inanimate objects spontaneously flying around. Raven what are you doing in here and in the floor?"

"I-" Raven began, but couldn't think of a very good excuse, "I came in here to..." she began to tell him the truth about her burn but she began to cry a little, it wasn't that the burn hurt that much, it was that she wouldn't have even had the burn had she pulled away from the fire, but she couldn't figure out why she didn't want to. All she really wanted was for the fire to engulf her and allow her to return to the ashes and devastation from which her existence spawned. Not being able to speak without her crying becoming worse she just put her forehead on her knees and began trying to regain control of her tears. She held out her hand so Beast Boy could see.

He shook off the shock of seeing Raven's emotions so overt, or seeing that she had them at all for that matter and decided to try to comfort her. She might try to kill him but he had to do what was morally right, she was a girl, a teammate, a friend to one degree or another, and she was crying so it was his job.

And there was an odd nagging feeling in his chest when he saw her like this, he reached out and grasped either side of her hand without touching the burn and looked at it, "Yikes, that's a little brutal not to be a battle wound."

Raven continued crying slightly, quieting a little her voice as soft and meek as it had ever been that anyone could remember, "It was my fault, I burnt it with a lighter, and I came in here to put some gauze on it."

"Accidents happen, here I'll help you," he pulled her up off the floor and led her over to the counter and went about carefully medicating and bandaging the burn, "Why were you hiding though?"

Raven had stopped crying but still wasn't back to her normal self completely so she didn't push Beast Boy's help away, she didn't respond but just breathed deeply.

He chuckled after a minute, "I guess you wouldn't have hid if you wanted me to know, huh?"

She nodded slightly and proceeded to walk away, just as she was about to exit the kitchen she turned to him and without making eye contact and in a more normal tone said, "Thanks, and by the way, don't ever touch me when I'm crying again, something bad might happen, I might hurt you..."

"Um, you're welcome, and uh... okay?" he said in a confused tone, but she had already left, 'Hurt me? Well if you don't want my help then just say so...' and he went back to eating his midnight tofu meal.


End file.
